Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Night Owls vs. Early Birds

For as long as I can remember, I've been a "night owl." I can't imagine why the day should start before about 10:00 a.m. Conversely, Tim is an "early bird." He likes to start his day about 4:30 a.m. He'll sleep in until about 6:00 a.m. on the weekends. I don't understand that and I'm not sure I even trust people like that. It just seems unnatural to me.

Regardless of what time I start my day, I'm still a "night person." My usual bedtime is between 12:00 and 1:00 a.m. If I stay up later than that, it's hard to get up at 5:30 a.m.

What does this have to do with Those Brindle Kids? When we first brought Truly home, he was still on "track time." Every morning, Truly was awake and ready to go even before Tim - maybe 4:00 a.m. After a while, Truly learned to sleep later - and we were very grateful. Truly stirs when he hears the alarm but he knows to wait it out until the second snooze alarm.

When we brought Maggie home, she followed Truly's lead. She didn't get up until he did. When Walker came, he was just fine to sleep in until Truly told him to get up, too.

Truly is ready to go to bed by 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. at the latest. Walker starts walking around the living room and pestering us about 9:00 p.m. Tim complies and all the boys go upstairs and turn in early.

Maggie stays downstairs with me for a couple more hours. Maybe she thinks it's a "girl thing" or maybe she thinks Sawyer and I would be scared downstairs without her. Whatever her motivation, it's evident that staying up late is a sacrifice for her. She's very dramatic. She's very good at demostrating her exhaustion.

I am a night owl too! My dogs always stay up with me. Well, they don't stay up, they are usually sleeping on the couch! The other morning it was 9:00 a.m. and I had to wake them up for breakfast! Good thing I don't go to work until 10:00 a.m.